Pages

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Finally reached the top of Titania's wing! Just one more to go... should be easy to finish tomorrow evening. And then there's the (dun dun dunnnn) over one skin and her hair, plus beads. Noooo! She has so much skin, it's almost like a mini HAED in the middle. But with only four colors. :p

Speaking of HAED, I picked up a few more charts in the 45% off sale. *naughty* But I'd been waiting on Winter Rose being turned into a mini, so... I couldn't pass her up! And then the other three I got were part of set of four. Did I NEED all four? No, but they're cute and small so there. :p

Sunday, December 23, 2012

I can't believe I've stitched so much and still haven't reached the top of her wing! I had to move back to the left wing because I reached the top of the q-snap and I don't want to move it until I've done all I can without moving things around.

Not too bad, considering I've only stitched the last three days or so!

I don't think I can finish her by the end of the year, but maybe I can get those wings done...

Saturday, December 15, 2012

I feel like I'm going a bit faster now. Took her off the scroll frame and put her on the trusty q-snap, which is so much more comfortable for me. Can still stitch two-handed if I want, but with the fabric positioned exactly where I want it. Yay! I don't think it's realistic to finish her this year, but I'll try. Maybe over the long Christmas weekend... (ha ha ha)

And HOLY COW have you seen the new Mirabilia? WHOA. ♥Roses of Provence
More like Roses of AWESOME if you ask me!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Sorry for the pooptastic pictures, but it's hard to take good ones when it's dark outside and you have lame shaky hands that can't keep the camera steady! I'll add more as soon as I can. :)

The best "full" shot I got:

Lookit dem beads! :D

I decided that spiderweb roses don't belong in the ocean.

So I put real shells instead! :)

The handsome devil(fish)!

And I tried to scan it, but that didn't work either... this is the only part that came out okay!

As for the changes I made to the pattern... there are some worth noting. :)

- Changed top blackwork pattern to one of my own design. The original had a ton of stitches that were over only one thread, and it didn't look good on a dark fabric.
- Changed the color of top and bottom blackwork from green to purple (the thread I was subbing for the green was a lot darker than the actual color and it didn't show up against my fabric).
- Coral to the left of the octopus was moved in (toward the octopus) two stitches. It was way too close to the border originally. I had to rip this out and redo it or I'd never like it.
- The same coral has the lines stitched in orange, not yellow as charted.
- Large border shells are backstitched in brown PTB, NOT orange PPP.
- Outlined starfish (bottom left) with blue PTB instead of black DMC.
- Octopus suckers were done with white beads turned on their sides, because I'm clever like that.
- Replaced spiderweb roses in the border with real shells.
- Stitched dense shells on border with peachy Kreinik, not yellow DD silk.

And finally, most of the threads were subbed with whatever I had in my stash, though I suspect all the DD silks were the correct colors. I have a bunch of unmarked DDs that I got in grab bags of slightly imperfect threads, and they matched the colors I found by looking online.

Sunday, December 02, 2012

The final part of Octopus Treasure Cave came out yesterday. I had intended to finish it this weekend, but you know how things go sometimes.

I did get one of the four sides done. Sorry for the terrible pictures (yay flash) but there are about nine different colors in the big scallop! I'll get a better picture when I do another one.

Then again, I don't know if I'll do another one. At least, not without changing it. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of this part as all the elements are kind of weird. The blank spaces to the right and left of the beads were supposed to be something like spiderweb roses... in the ocean? And the shell looks an awful lot like the Shell logo with the bold orange backstitching. And I don't really like the shell stitches either, they look pretty bland in that brown color, and not very shell-shaped.

Seriously. :(
I mean, I work in the oil industry but I'm not THAT fond of it!

I'll try making the outline brown instead...

YES, this is much better! The shell is outlined in brown Petite Treasure Braid, and the small shells are restitched in a pinkish beige Kreinik. The small shells still look like blobs, but now they're SHINY blobs and that makes them awesome. :p

Friday, November 16, 2012

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show today! I've been sick since Sunday night and haven't been able to stitch for more than a few minutes... and even that ended in a frogging mess. I'm finally feeling better so I'm hoping IHSW won't end up being a bust for me.

I wanted to promote a cool idea I saw on another blog, though! Pull the Other Thread has a nice SAL for next year called YOTA, or Year of the Acronym - which is a clever play on how the acronym UFO SAL (aka unfinished object stitch-along) can be a little crazy if you don't know what it means. :)

It's a monthly SAL where you work on a UFO and show your progress the first Saturday of each month. So if you need a little extra push, check it out!

~~~

And speaking of UFOs and other stuff, here's what I hope to finish up this year:

I do have to admit that I'm not feeling the PR SAL at the moment, though. I feel like there is way too much border on the piece and I'm sick of stitching it. >.> But I hate falling behind, so I'll keep at it...

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Ah, the exchange results I did for the Stitched With Love group have been posted, so I can finally share what I sent and received! :)

I created a stitcher's box for my partner, Becky...

And I received a gorgeous pillow from my gifter, Cherise!

It was my first time making a box top like that, but it worked out really well, thanks to some nice tutorials I found. The inside is lined with an orange fabric and it's slightly padded. I wish I could find my other pictures, but I guess this will have to do for now!

I think I'm going to bust out Miss Titania and give her some love today. I'm home sick with a stupid sinus thing and a fever, but I hate just sitting around. Especially since I had to use a holiday because I'm out of sick time... sigh. I guess I should be happy that I had the option, but six sick days a year really isn't enough if you plan on having even one semi-minor surgery. :(

Sunday, November 11, 2012

So I went a little crazy this weekend, and QS Iris is now finished! :) I guess this means I can't procrastinate on NaNo any longer... except I'm going to play Skyrim now, sooo... :p

I can't believe how awesome it looks after being washed and ironed!

Also... if you like 28ct evenweaves, maybe you could take a peek at my eBay auctions? I'm selling all of my 28ct fabrics because I prefer to use 32ct, so I have a bunch of old Silkweaver fabrics and a few other hand-dyed items, including one piece of SMF Belfast since I have another piece in a similar color. :)

Sunday, November 04, 2012

I'm just a hair shy of 7k words for my NaNoWriMo novel, which puts me ahead of the standard daily NaNo pace, but about 1k behind where I personally want to be by the end of the day. I plan to go easy on weekdays and only push for 1k per day, and make up for it by writing 3k on weekends and holidays. Seems to be working well so far as it's not even 11am! It'll be easy to pump out another 1k later on...

Between writing sessions, I've been plugging along on QS Iris.

At this rate, it may be finished by the end of the month!

Then again, maybe not... because my wife and I are starting Wentzler's Day and Night today. I've wanted to stitch Night for ages and I actually started it once upon a time when I was a teenager. Got through a good chunk of the figure, but my stitching was horrible back then and I tossed the WIP when I found it a couple of years ago! Yes, it was THAT bad.

So in stashy news, I ended up buying six Wentzler patterns from POL.com... including three I already have in books. Oh well, it's easier to print them that way...

Saturday, October 27, 2012

In my defense, my computer was in for repairs and I didn't get it back until Thursday. Sigh.

The lack of computer-y distractions did give me a lot of time to stitch! I've nearly completed page 3 of QS Iris. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it this month as I had to burn my entire Saturday on car repairs and other "fun" things, but I'm still proud of how far I've come... especially since I had an unexpected detour with Spring Knotgarden. :)

As you can see, I'm sticking with parking, and it's really working out well for me. I feel like my speed has significantly increased, and it's very satisfying to see the image come to life in solid blocks, because any little missing area is very distracting.

November goals:
- Finish Octopus Treasure Cave!oops, last part is out in December, not November *cry*
- Finish page 3 of QS Iris!already did that :p
- Win NaNoWriMo! AGAIN! Because I am crazy awesome!

This year's novel is The Ninth Circle, a tale of love and sacrifice starring a demon who was born in hell (and thus does not understand the suffering of his demonic peers), and the stubborn human prince who will do anything to be reunited with him. Yes, I love cheese.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

I don't know how this post will look since I'm doing it from my phone... I hope both photos work. Finally got the second big garden of part two done. Two more to go... sigh.

There's more to show but it's something I stitched for an exchange so it will have to wait!

PS - Whoa, these pics are terrible! I'll take new ones and post again soon... my computer is acting weird so I had to use my phone to post, but I don't know why it put awful grainy thumbnails instead of uploading the large images! I know my phone can take great pics, I used it as my camera in Ireland. Grr! >.>

Saturday, October 06, 2012

It only took me one (long) afternoon/evening to add part five of Octopus Treasure Cave. It was a small part, two small corals, a shell, and one larger coral, but they were complex as usual and the shell is super shiny! Check it out!

Here's a closeup of the part five additions (ignore the starfish!):

Angled shot just for fun...

And here's the whole project so far! Just one more part before it's all finished! There's some shells and other decorations on the outside, between the blackwork waves. I'm sure I'll have it done within a couple of days of release... I'm super excited to finish this beauty!

And now back to the piece I'm stitching for an exchange... boo. I love exchanges, don't get me wrong! It's just that I'm itching to catch up on the PR SAL and work on other WIPs too. I guess this means I shouldn't do an ornament swap this year, huh? :p

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Back from Ireland, my wallet significantly lighter, but that's okay! I'll be creating a nice online gallery after I finish sorting and correcting the photos, but here are a few of Blarney Castle in County Cork. Gorgeous!

There's a TON more where those came from, but that'll have to wait. And yes, that's me in the first picture, all bundled up against the cold and damp!

And now for stitching!

September goals:
- Frame the Lesley Teare mermaid ... still NO!
- Finish Wisteria ... YES!
- Stitch part 3 of the PR SAL ... YES!Not bad. Still haven't had time to frame the mermaid so that will have to be this month! So we have:

Finally, I decided to try parking on QS Iris and it was awkward at first, then it started to go fast. Really fast, I think. I found the bottom! I'm working roughly in columns, but you bet your butt that if there's just one stitch of a color in the block to the right, I'm doing it with the thread I have on hand!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Wisteria is finally finished! I thought I was all done last night, but I forgot to stitch "Fig. II" next to the flower, so I had to add that tonight. Oops. After a nice bath and a good ironing, here's how it turned out...

This closeup is much more accurate. I need to remember that I don't need to use the flash, even at night... it takes all of five seconds to color correct the photo with a graphics program. I really love how the purples look in this one, so brilliant!

Finally all done for my lovely wife, as a tribute to the huge, gorgeous wisteria that was growing at the old house. Seriously, that thing was insane. I wonder if I have a picture somewhere... ooh, I found them!!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I've been chosen by Kaye to participate in a stitchy PIF (pay it forward) exchange! What does that mean? Kaye offered a handmade gift to three people... and part of asking to be considered was agreeing to do the same. So Kaye received a gift and was inspired to gift three more people... and each of those three (including me) will offer three gifts! In other words, the one gift that Kaye received will keep growing by a factor of three.

Okay, that sounds like math, never mind. :)
The point is that the spirit of giving goes on each time!

It's your turn to get a handmade stitchy gift from me! I will be making gifts for three people who want to be part of the PIF. I will make and send my gift to you some time in the next 6 months. I stitch fast but I'm not a machine. :p

Here's the rules!

1. Understand that you will be expected to offer three gifts to others if you participate.2. Leave a comment here with your email address so I can contact you. :)3. If more than three people are interested in the PIF, I will choose randomly.

I'll leave this open until the end of September. Lots of time to decide if you want to commit! :)

And just so this post has a picture, have you seen the new Ink Circles design, Cirque des Coeurs? Imagine this sexy thing stitched in white on a red background. (PTP Phoenix anyone??) Awwww yeaaaaah. ^^b

Friday, September 07, 2012

Or something. I'm soooo close to finishing Wisteria, I wonder if I can manage it this weekend!

The colors are miserable, I know. This is why you should take pictures in natural sunlight, not holed up in the computer room at almost 10pm!

The rest of the flowers stretch down to the text at the bottom, but it gets a lot narrower as it goes, so it's not as intense stitching as the top. I dunno, it still looks like a looooong way to go... *sigh*

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Whoa, part three of the PR SAL is finally done... I wasn't expecting it to take a whole week but I should really be proud of myself. It was solid stitching in PTB, for the most part, and my eye is still recovering so I can't stitch for as long as I'd like. So zip it, jerkbrain, I did a good job SO THERE. :p

Here's the full piece so far... minus a bit of the border, which I'll do once the next part arrives. :)

Check out that SPARKLE!

Those wings are 95% petite treasure braid. Awwww yeah! :D

Now I can go back to the non-shininess of Wisteria and give my eyes a rest...

Saturday, September 01, 2012

I do have a small update... here's wisteria as it grows slowly. I started adding some backstitch too so I won't have to go back and do it later. My goal is to finish this bad boy this month, and I think it's quite doable since my eyes are cooperating rather well. :)

So... Joann's is having a 4/$1 floss sale this weekend. I might have to partake in that madness. :)

Back to the PR SAL - part three just arrived in my mailbox this morning! It's already coming along well. I love all the sparkle in the border...